Thomas Blenerhasset

Thomas Blenerhasset (c.1550–1624) was an English poet and writer on Ireland.

Life He was a younger son of William Blenerhasset of Horsford Park, near Norwich, who died in 1598. He was probably born about 1550, and was, according to his own account, educated at Cambridge without taking a degree. It is thought that he probably entered Trinity Hall, in 1564.

Blenerhasset subsequently entered the army, and was stationed for some years as captain at Guernsey Castle. In 1610 he was one of the undertakers for the plantation of Ulster. In 1611 he received at Clancally (barony of Clankelly) in Fermanagh, and in 1612 he, with 39 others, appealed to the lord-deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, to grant them jointly a part of County Sligo, in Fermanagh, and some neighbouring territory, on their undertaking to expend £40,000 on the land, and to settle on it 1,000 "able men". With his signature to this appeal Blenerhasset describes himself as of Horsford, Norfolk. He built Castlehasset on Lough Erne, a stone house and bawn known later as Crevenish Castle; and died there on 11 March 1624. That year, he was stated to own the barony of "Lurge" (Lurg) and two proportions of "Eddernagh" (Edernagh) and Tullenageane in Fermanagh. Settlements at Ederney and Kesh developed on the latter holdings. By way of dedication, Blenerhasset made commendatory remarks about Thomas Leighton, Governor of Guernsey where he was stationed. The London printer, Richard Webster, was a minor figure in the trade.

The Second Part (1578) of the Mirror for Magistrates In 1574 John Higgins wrote a further series of poems to add to the original Mirror for Magistrates, on legends set in earlier history, and was entitled The First Parte of the Mirror for Magistrates, and was reprinted in 1575. Blenerhasset's contribution to the Mirror was a continuation of Higgins's book, "from the conquest of Cæsar unto the commyng of Duke William the Conqueror".

Blenerhasset wrote his work on Guernsey, in 1577. Ostensibly, he intended the work for the private reading of a friend. It was published in London in 1578 under the title of The Second Parte of the Mirror for Magistrates. A letter was prefixed, containing some autobiographical facts, and addressed by the author to the friend.

Harriet Archer draws attention to Blenerhasset's use of the rhetorical figure of paralipsis. She argues that with it, he constructs "a scaffolding of Protestant intellectual culture and reformist thought". Further, she identifies that set of ideas with the circle of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, suggesting that Blenerhasset aspired to membership of that group, as well as of the poets who followed Baldwin by looking for more than face value in the Mirror works. She states that the lack of clear historical foundations for the "Ancient British" material was a commonplace of the time.

In 1610 ten of these poems of Blenerhasset were included in a complete reprint of the various parts of the Mirror for Magistrates undertaken by Richard Niccols; and all of them were reprinted by Joseph Haslewood in his 1815 edition of the Mirror published in 1815. Ulster, described as "our new worlde", will be settled by "the successors of high renowned Lud" and a new Troy will be built.

Family His father's will proves Blenerhasset to have been married before 1598, and to have had several children. His eldest brother, Sir Edward Blenerhasset, who shared with him several grants of Irish land, died in 1618.